Digital Government
FAA reports two-thirds of systems Y2K-compliant
The Federal Aviation Administration, criticized for its tardiness in fixing computers for the Year 2000 bug, said late last month it is one step closer to fixing its missioncritical systems to properly process dates occurring after 1999. At a press briefing held at FAA headquarters, Jane Garvey, F
Digital Government
Small biz snags $1.25B FAA pact
In an effort to silence criticism that it does not give more business to small and minority businesses, the Federal Aviation Administration last week awarded 14 contracts exclusively to small and disadvantaged businesses under a $1.25 billion information technology services contract. The Broad Info
Digital Government
GAO questions success of Census test
Before undertaking the next national head count in 2000, the Census Bureau must fix software bugs in the imaging system designed to process the billion pages of census forms it will receive, according to General Accounting Office officials testifying before a Senate committee last month. Speaking t
Digital Government
GAO scolds FAA over Year 2000
The Federal Aviation Administration's ineffective management of information technology has exacerbated problems with computer security and the Year 2000 computer bug, two areas where the agency faces huge and immediate challenges, witnesses testified before a House panel last week. Overcoming these
Digital Government
Funding shortage stymies USDA technology efforts
While streamlining efforts have saved the Agriculture Department billions of dollars over the last four years, funding constraints have hampered the progress of departmentwide technology programs and threatened the USDA's ability to realize further savings, a USDA official told a Senate panel last
Digital Government
Downey calls for ITS Y2K fix
Mortimer Downey, deputy secretary of the Transportation Department, last week called for federal, state and local cooperation and guidance to help fix the Year 2000 problem in Intelligent Transportation Systems technology. ITS, a joint effort among federal, state and local governments, is designed
Digital Government
FAA orders GPS risk assessment
With the future of one of its major modernization programs on the line, the Federal Aviation Administration and two aviation groups have hired Johns Hopkins University to test whether the satellitebased Global Positioning System can provide the only navigation service for airlines, freeing up the
Digital Government
GSA to push smart cards
In an effort to encourage the greater use of smart cards governmentwide, the General Services Administration plans to open a smart card office and a center where agencies can test smart card applications. In a memo last month, GSA Administrator David Barram said he plans to issue an administrative
Digital Government
Bay, HP deliver 10/100 Ethernet switches
Bay Networks Inc. and HewlettPackard Co. earlier this month unveiled new workgroup switches designed for the 10/100 Ethernet environment and targeted toward priceconscious users. The Bay stackable switch and the HP standalone switch are aimed at the workgroup area, but they differ on features an
Digital Government
Delivering the cutting edge
Having spent the past 26 years of his career at the U.S. Postal Service, William Orr, manager of the agency's Distributed Systems Central Management Facility in Raleigh, N.C., is intimately familiar with the challenges of an agency trying to stay on the cutting edge of technology. Orr is responsibl
Digital Government
Rep. criticizes SBA's loan monitoring system plan
The chairman of a House subcommittee this month said the Small Business Administration's plans for its proposed $20 million loan monitoring system are incomplete and unacceptable. As required, SBA submitted a report to Congress June 2 detailing its progress in carrying out an eightstep action plan
Digital Government
USPS taps US Bank for purchase cards
The U.S. Postal Service last week chose US Bancorp's US Bank International Merchant Purchasing Authorization Card Government Services Division to provide the agency's purchasing card program, which will help the agency push toward paperless contracting. The taskorder contract was awarded under the
Digital Government
SBA works on Y2K internally, with small biz
Although the Small Business Administration is making strides in fixing its own internal year 2000 problem, the 23 million small businesses the agency serves are much farther behind, according to witnesses who testified at a congressional hearing last week. As of May, SBA has renovated, validated an
Digital Government
FAA expands telecom network contract
The Federal Aviation Administration last month restructured and increased the value of its fouryearold data networking contract because of a greater demand for network management services. The Agency Data Telecommunications Network 2000 (ADTN 2000) contract was awarded in 1994 for about $18 milli
Digital Government
Electronic payments lag as deadline looms
With the deadline for agencies to make all payments electronically just less than six months away, less than 40 percent of the payments the government makes to the private sector are done electronically, the Treasury Department reported last week. The Debt Collection Improvement Act of 1996 mandate
Digital Government
Treasury tests smart cards
The Treasury Department and eight vendors last week launched a pilot to test the use of a smart card security application for World Wide Webbased financial transactions. The new pilot, announced last week at the EGov 98 conference in Washington, D.C., is the first joint Secure Electronic Transact
Digital Government
National Finance Center closes gap on Y2K compliance
The Agriculture Department's National Finance Center, which processes payrolls for numerous agencies and manages the government's multibilliondollar Thrift Savings Plan, is one step closer to making its computer systems Year 2000compliant. On June 30, the NFC finished renovating more than 23 mill
Digital Government
FAA modernization under fire again
Air traffic controllers at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport last week charged the Federal Aviation Administration with reneging on promises to include them in the development of a new air traffic control system, which is scheduled for installation at the airport next March.
Digital Government
Visionael brings net design tools to feds
Network design and documentation vendor Visionael Corp. has made inroads in the government market since opening its federal office in February, highlighted by two significant customers at the Defense Department. The company's Visionael Net suite consists of tools that help large organizations docum
Digital Government
PTO to put patent, trademark data online
The Commerce Department's Patent and Trademark Office plans to make 20 million pages of patent and trademark information available on the Internet for free in a move that will create one of the largest databases of its kind. Under the plan, which was driven by Vice President Al Gore's reinventing g
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